


No Evil: (to speak in truth, to set it free)

by amanderjean



Series: No Evil [3]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Infidelity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 13:36:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6155371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amanderjean/pseuds/amanderjean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A relationship from the outside. In which Chase is all of us, probably.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Evil: (to speak in truth, to set it free)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on imagined renderings of real people, and is not meant to imply any actual knowledge of the beliefs, behaviors, or values of any of the characters mentioned.

Chase can’t understand why nobody talks about it.

He is almost positive his bosses are sleeping together, and nobody ever speaks a word about it. Not a raised eyebrow, not a snide remark, not a knowing glance after a particular touch or look or hours spent locked in their office (Chase knows they lock it, he tried the knob once, slowly, carefully, even put his ear to the door until he heard footsteps coming down the hall). The fact that not one person who shares his workspace has ever so much as mentioned it is what keeps him from being completely certain.

They have to be.

But no one talks about it. And so Chase’s mind cannot rest on it.

He tries to lure Stevie into it once, just once, asking if they talked about their recent extracurricular camping trip, if they shared a tent, did they share anything else heh heh heh, but she doesn’t bite. She gives him a long look and gets up to make a phone call.

Chase isn’t stupid. And he isn’t sure why he needs to know. He just knows he wants one other person to acknowledge that he isn’t crazy. That he’s not seeing things that aren’t there.

Chase is so preoccupied, he forgets to grab the stack of outgoing mail on his way out the door. He’s halfway home, his mind still dwelling on whether or not he imagined Rhett’s hand on Link’s knee at 4:35 of this morning’s posted video, when he remembers the mail. He shouldn’t even be the one taking the mail anymore, damn it. But he turns back anyway.

He’s still thinking about whether or not Link’s eyebrows at 8:34 were trying to be silly or suggestive, and so he doesn’t notice the company car still in the parking lot or the fact that the door is unlocked until he hears voices in the hall. He doesn’t know why he presses his back against the wall and hopes no one turns the corner (he doesn’t need to hide, he just forgot the mail, he’s not a child sneaking back in through his bedroom window) but instinct tells him to keep quiet. Maybe he just doesn’t want to interrupt.

“I just want to finally talk about it.”

“I don’t know what there is to talk about.”

“Come on, man. You really don’t think there’s anything to talk about? You don’t feel even a little bit bad?”

“I really don’t. You know I don’t.”

“I can’t believe you don’t see the trouble in this. Lying. Sneaking around. Infidelity.”

Chase feels his eyes grow wide and his mouth drop open.

“First off, we’re not lying to anybody.”

“We’re lying by omission! So no one’s come up to you and asked, ‘Hey Link, by the way, when was the last time you fucked your best friend?’ That doesn’t mean we’re not lying.”

Chase has forgotten how to breathe.

“You know I hate when you call it that.”

“Fucking? Well, it is.”

“It’s not. You know it’s not.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Dang it, Rhett, that is the point. It’s the whole goddamn point.”

“Watch your mouth.”

“The whole point is that it’s not fucking. It’s not … it’s not anything like that. It’s me and you. That’s all. It’s just us.”

“It’s not just us, Link. It’s our wives. Our families. Our employees. We’re not in a vacuum, man, what we’re doing matters to other people. Really matters.”

“I just don’t see it that way.”

A thick and ugly silence fills the hall. One of them is breathing deeply, rhythmically, the way Rhett does when someone’s being impossible, defying reason and letting their emotions run away with them.

“Are you saying you want to stop? Go back to how it was when we were just best friends, happily married, no sexual tension here, folks, nothing to see! Just two dudes who are definitely not checking out each other’s asses when they think no one’s looking!”

“I’m still happily married.”

“Yeah, so am I. Probably even happier, man. Call me crazy but I think Christy’s happier, too.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Probably.”

A softer pause.

“I’m not saying I want to go back.”

“Ok. Good. Then what are you saying?”

“I just … want to think about it. Talk about it. With you. Everything about this is scary, it’s a big deal and we’re just ignoring it.”

“We’re not ignoring anything. We’re happily married. We’re best friends. We run a business together, we’re talented and successful, we go surfing and camping and we have sex. Does it really need to be more complicated?”

“What you described is complicated. And - we’re best friends that have sex? Really? If that’s all this is, man, I’m out. I’m not risking my whole life for that. Find some other friend to fuck.”

Chase knows he should leave, should make his footsteps quiet as possible and slide out the door, but he’s beyond all sense now and he’s clamped his hand over his mouth so they won’t hear him breathing.

“Whoa, man. That is NOT what I’m saying. Are you serious? After all this, you think … you think I’m just, what, using you? For sex?”

“I didn’t think that. Now I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to make it complicated for you.”

All Chase hears is breathing. The silence is stretching out too far, it’s been too long, and Chase is screaming internally for Link to just fucking say something -

“It’s not complicated. I mean, I guess it should be. It’s a bit messy, I’ll give you that. But it’s not complicated. I … you know how I … you’re really going to make me do this?”

“Make you what? Actually have a conversation with me about what the heck we’re doing here? Yeah, I am! Because this year, Link, this last year has been amazing. I mean it, the best of my life, some days I wake up and I can’t believe I got so lucky, to be able to do this work and have this life together, and to kiss you and touch you, too; how can one man have possibly been given so many good things? And then I look over at Jessie, and the guilt and worry starts to eat at me and if I’m going to do this terrible thing, to risk ruining everything else, I have to at least know we’re in this together.”

“Of course we are. Who else is in it?”

“You know what I mean.”

Another long, hard silence. If Link doesn’t say something soon, Chase is going to strangle him.

“You know I suck at this.”

“I know.”

“You’re making me do it anyway.”

“I need you to say it, Link. I need it.”

“You need what? To hear me say that I’m in love with you? Of course I am! I’ve probably been in love with you since we were six! But it sounds so stupid coming out of my mouth, man, because it doesn’t even cover it! It’s not enough, to say it, I mean, you’re … you’re everything, Rhett. My childhood, my home. You’re the first stable thing I ever had in my life! What could I possibly say that can cover that? That can tell you how it feels, after all this time, to have you? The way that feels right? So no, Rhett, I don’t feel bad. I’m sorry you feel guilty, but I just don’t. How could I feel guilty? It’s always been this way. I’ve loved you my whole life. And now it feels right.” A beat. “Ok?”

Chase knows, for sure, that his heart is going to explode out of his chest, and his insides are leaking out everywhere, and they’re going to slip in his guts on their way out and wonder how poor Chase died, his brain and heart and intestines all over the floor. They won’t know that their conversation murdered him, right there in the darkened hallway.

“Ok.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s it? Really? No more, ‘let’s talk, Link, our love is so clandestine and angsty, I want to hear you say all the cheesy words like I’m the chick in a stupid movie - ’”

“Shut up, man. Don’t tease me right after confessing your undying love for me.”

“You made me confess it!”

“Yeah, I did.”

There are shuffles on the carpet, like two pairs of feet moving closer together.

“I wanted to make sure.”

“I know.”

“I still feel so guilty.”

The soft sound of lips meeting drifts through the dark. “Do you remember when I kissed you?”

“You mean just now?”

“No, obviously. The first time.”

“Yes, obviously.”

“We were fighting. I picked a fight because I wanted to kiss you so bad. And then I just couldn’t not kiss you anymore.”

“I remember.”

“Do you wish I hadn’t?”

A beat. “No.”

“Ok, then. We’ll figure it out.”

“Not today.”

“No, not today.”

Chase’s legs start to move before his brain catches up. He hopes the noise of whatever they’ve started doing (he won’t sink so far into this to actually imagine them making out) drowns out the gentle steps towards the door, the click of the doorknob, the start of his engine. He forgets the mail again, but he does’t turn back. He keeps the headlights off until he leaves the parking lot.

The next morning, Stevie asks him why he’s acting weird. He shrugs. He doesn’t say a word.


End file.
